forming a stronger parent unit

On one evening when we were strolling around Popular Bookstore, I picked up this wooden multiplication table board for Rynus, as he's obsessed with the multiplication table recently. Yes when I say he's "obsessed", I really meant he is practising it a few times everyday! We are encouraging our 7 years old Renzo to learn his multiplication table and he's still not very fluent with it after practising for nearly a month, but to our amazement, Rynus has learned about 80% of the entire multiplication table up to 12x12 within about 2 weeks times. And by the end of 1 month mark, he's mastered the entire table.

For record, here's a video of Rynus reciting the full multiplication table from 2x1 up to 12x12. There were a few missing equations as the video exceeded its limit and I had to stop and retake while he's doing his 11x.

So to reinforce his learning, I thought this wooden board must be quite a good idea since it has the questions on one side of the block and the answer on this other side. When I presented it to Rynus that night, he shrieked gaily and claimed, "I love this present, it's awesome!!".

Rynus then spent his entire evening before bedtime exploring his new "toy". Instinctively, he flip over every piece of block before thinking about the answer, the moment he realised he could check his answer at the back of the block. Daddy Chan had to stop him from doing that and show him the correct way of "playing", which is to look at the question, give an answer and then flip over the block to check the answer.

At the end of his play, I was pretty certain that this new "toy" isn't a good idea anymore, because Rynus doesn't seem to focus much on giving correct answers, but instead, he's more interested in flipping the blocks for quick answer. And although I am very certain he can easily recite the entire 9x table, he paused many times and gave the "i-don't-think-i-know" look which left me thinking about keeping this board away, so not to confuse him any further. But I kept my thought under wraps since Daddy Chan was already trying hard to explain to Rynus about how this board should be played.

The following morning, Rynus started to work on the multiplication board again. But this time, he started off by stacking up the blocks and when being questioned, he said he's trying to build a tunnel!

After watching him playing with the blocks for a while, Daddy Chan suddenly turned to me and said, "Let's not control the way he plays with this board, it might not be a bad thing that he's treating it as a toy, maybe that's just the way he learns.". Phew, Daddy Chan surely has no idea what a relief it is for me to know that we are on the same page, again!


Yes it's our habit to share our parenting views, decisions and concerns regularly. During our lunch break or journey home after work, we often discuss about our kids' behavior and how to alter our parenting style in order to help them learn and improve. And of course there are times we agree to disagree. For example, Daddy Chan believes that gaming isn't all bad as kids pick up tribal knowledge through gaming, whereas I have totally zero, ZERO tolerance with kids touching digital devices, let alone games. So even though Daddy Chan plays games, he seldom does that in front of the kids.

I believe in gentle yet firm parenting style and do not encourage scolding and spanking, whereas Daddy Chan thinks that punishment is an inevitable, and necessary part of disciplining young kids. That's obviously the reason why the boys will approach me, who is the softer, more lenient parent to get permission.

So clearly we are different in certain ways. But I am glad that we agree on issues almost all the time, we just have different styles to deliver the message. I don't think it's totally bad for our children to experience that differences, it might help them learn about varied opinions and different ways to view the same situation.

But no doubt, the closer parents are united in morals, character, discipline and behavioral expectations, the better for raising happy, healthy, resilient and rational kids.

My #EpicFail at #Epic Kidzania Singapore

For Mummy Chan and myself, every weekend is a where-to-bring-the-kids medley of brainstorming, idea throwing and internet research. But 9-Apr-16 was a different one. Through a wonderful friend, I managed to get my hands on 4 preview tickets for the Chan Family to gain access to Kidzania Singapore 3 days before its official grand opening and for once, I told myself that I'd blog the most fantabulastic review of the much anticipated kids theme park!


The day came and I must say, the kids enjoyed themselves very very much and so did Mummy Chan and myself :)
From fire fighters to pilots to lab scientists to window washers to store cashiers, Renzo and Rynus role played to their hearts' content. One particularly interesting experience was that after his 20-minute stint as a KFC chef, it even inspired Renzo to want to make a burger dinner at home the week after.

So yeah, at the end of a rewardingly exhausting 7 hour stay at Kidzania, I rested myself and days later when I was ready to pen down that informagical review that I promised myself to the world, a quick search on the internet revealed more than a handful of top-notch blog posts out there (most popular being cheekiemonkie) have already done that.

So instead of sharing what's at Kidzania like all those posts have already masterfully did, I'll share with my #epicfails (and by epicfails, I mean my fails, not Kidzania's... they are just too good) and what tidbits of information that might help you prepare better for your kid's (kids') Kidzania trip~!

#1. Bring along your jacket and wear your socks and shoes!
Yes this is more like an indoor theme park, don't get me wrong, you do not need to wear socks to enter Kidzania, it's just that the air conditioning inside is pretty strong. Kids are pretty okay as they will be busy carrying out their tasks and at certain point, the boys did complain that they feel hot and requested to take off their jackets. But for adults, true enough we need to follow them around, but once they start their job, we just have to wait, and it can get a bit chilly there. Especially the play area for kids below 4, that place is freezing cold! I guess they do not want 1 kid to occupy the entire ball pit for the whole day, so switching on stronger air conditioning is the right strategy. I thought Rynus could be playing inside while I rest on the couch and watch for the entire afternoon, but we "escaped" after less than 30 minutes playing there.

#2. Decide on the must dos and waste no time once you step in.
We are not referring to the activities yet. But here's 2 things you need to know about this place. First of all, if you have been to Kidzania in other countries, then you would know that there's this thing called a Kidzania Pazzport, which costs SGD18 per child. Your child will start as a Neutralized Citizen with benefits like earn/save 2 extra Kidzos for their participation in activities. They receive stamps for each activity completed and with collection of 30/60 stamps, they will get upgraded to Distinguished / Honorable Citizen for unlock even more benefits. So decide before you go, and proceed to level 2 to apply for the pazzport if you want it. I do think if you believe this is a place you would come back for sure, then just get it. Another thing is, the currency used in Kidzania is called Kidzo. When your child works and earns their money, it's paid in Kidzo (cash) or credited to their ATM card. So if you would like them to be paid cashlessly, then activate the card immediately when you enter. The queue at the bank is pretty darn realistic (long and slow). And only kids can bring their card in so do prepare them for this task if your child is too young to handle it independently. Obviously Rynus' card has not been activated, he can do that if he's joined the queue with Renzo and with korkor's help it should be much easier, but too bad, he didn't even want to join the queue.

#3. Try to show pictures or even videos to your kids before going there
I am sure they might get too excited to even fall asleep if you were to show them anything before hand. But I would highly suggest you to do this. Kids like Renzo who needs more time to warm up, was rather lost for the first 30 minutes inside not knowing what to expect. And it totally didn't help when Mummy Chan and myself were mountain tortoises who don't know anything at all. Their staff were friendly and were trying hard to invite the kids into their station without noticing that the kids haven't settled into the environment yet. So it took us a while to figure out exactly what to do inside and how to do it. As for Rynus, it's even tougher, he said "I want to go home" more than 5 times through our stay there. Most of the activities are for age 4 and above but that doesn't mean he's able to understand what's going on. So places that require more action, like the fire station, attracted his attention immediately when he heard the siren from the fire truck. And only after trying that out, he's more willing to explore other activities.

#4. The ATM is for checking account status (not for depositing)
Why must I mention this, isn't that common sense? We were caught by surprise when Renzo went ahead to activate his ATM card, but didn't get to deposit any money through ATM machine. Right so we told him to join the long queue and get his card activated, we gave him 20 Kidzos to deposit while activating his card, thinking that the rest of the money can be bank in at later time through ATM machine, since there's not much queue at ATM so we could just do it at any time. But nope, those machines are just for checking bank record! Isn't that weird? But I guess the idea is to activate the ATM first thing when you go in, it has 30 Kidzos on the card and kids have 20 Kidzos in cash. So deposit that 20 Kidzos at the same time, from then on, just use the ATM card to pay / earn inside there. We did everything the opposite way. Because the queue was too long when we first step in, we went straight with cash. So end of the day when we have lots of cash in hand and didn't deposit them in while activating card, the only solution is to queue again. By the way the bank queue is long throughout the day, so just be prepared, to queue.

#5. Bye Bye Data Plan
Not too sure if this was intentional but the 4G/3G/your-G signal there is pretty bad. So please stay near your family instead of relying on your phones to gather at a certain "meeting spot". If you absolutely must, there is WiFi on the 2nd level lounge (but really, power off the mobile, this is a day to be with the kids)

#6. Aviation Academy Alert
One of the main attraction (at least to my boys) was the job as a pilot at the Aviation Academy. But with great attraction comes long waiting time. For me, the wait in line was about 30 minutes, after which the kids will be brought to a secondary waiting room where parents are not allowed for another 30 - 50 minutes. Do the maths and you'll get 1 hour waiting time for 20-30 minutes of aviation fun. Not the best ROI for time (but I'm sure it was great fun). Remember to bring your kid to the restroom before embarking on this hour-long waiting journey.

And also, because almost the plane is restricted to kids only, your wonderful picture of your smart looking kid in pilot uniform would most probably come from one of the assigned Canon photographer instead of your shiny new camera, of course that definitely comes with a price, SGD$20 per piece if our memories serve us right.

#7. Save the food making activities for meal time

There are restaurants inside Kidzania and we had simple KFC meal while waiting outside the aviation academy for the boys. But for kids, plan your timing so when they get hungry, bring them to make burger, pizza, yakult or even icecream. But if your kid is as young as Rynus, then either the elder sibling will need to make double trip at the station to make extra portion of food, or you just need to bring along extra milk powder, if your kid is a milk junkie like Rynus.

#8. Let your kid go in group with their elder cousins or friends
We've seen many upper primary kids roaming around the place like pro, followed by some younger siblings, cousins of friends. Sometimes they discuss about the activities and those younger ones get encouraged to try out different things, even if they might not fully understand. But if your kid is there alone, or like Renzo's case although he's there with his brother, Rynus is much younger to be of any help. Renzo covered a total of 7 stations in 7 hours, Rynus didn't get to go in together for a few places like Yakult factory or Learning Lab which are meant for 6 / 7 and above. As it's a soft launch the crowd was still manageable, I believe now since it's already opened officially on April 12, you might expect less stations covered for same hours inside.

#9. Spend your Kidzos at the Department Store and/or Shopping Alley
Too much cash on hand or busting the binary limit on your ATM card? Unfortunately not all the establishments accepts Kidzos. You'll need to bring your kid to the Department Store or Shopping Alley where Kidzos in an accepted currency. This is especially true if you are not expecting yourself to be visiting Kidzania anytime soon :)

3 letter words, foundation for independent reading

When Rynus was 17 months old, I wrote a post about how difficult it seems to be, to coach my little man, and putting in extra efforts to introduce alphabets and numbers to him. I often tell my friends that Renzo is rather easy to coach when comes to academics but for Rynus, I could foresee we will probably go through a tougher journey as he's rather playful and less serious about academics stuff. But our little man decided to prove us wrong just a month after he turned 3. Well I am not saying he proved us wrong by grasping a new skill of spelling/pronouncing words earlier than his korkor, indeed Renzo was able to do the same when he was only 25 months old, Rynus proved us wrong in the sense that we thought it's going to be tough to coach him, but it seems the whole journey is rather fun. 

Last week, I shared about how Rynus learned to write his own name in about 20 minutes. And this week, he progressed on to start simple 3 letter words spelling.

First of all, let me make it clear. This post is not to boast about how a 3 years old could read/spell/write words. Trust me that's nothing worth showing off, there are definitely other kids who could do the same and even my own son, Renzo, was 1 year ahead of Rynus achieving milestone like this. I never had any intention to "drill" or "train" my kids to be scholars, what I am doing is purely to observe them closely, give them right exposure at right time to help them achieve what they are capable of doing, and provide a healthy family bonding as well as a conducive learning environment at home. Rynus is surrounded with educational materials often,  though he might not touch them all the time. Yes milk bottle sure wins hands down! But at least by exposing him to all these, he has higher chance to pick up something, right?! Of course as parents, our role is to pay close attention and help them discover their own ability. It's just like he could recognize letters, their phonics sounds, but without our intervention, he's not able to tell what's next, when is he suppose to pick up reading or writing.

Another school of thoughts suggests that we should not over teach our kids. I definitely agree with that, because I got feedback from Renzo's teacher that he's less focused in class when he already earned the knowledge about the topics being taught. I don't think I am anywhere near over teaching the boys. Even for our 6 years old Renzo who's going to start Primary 1 in next January, we have never given him any assessment books to work on at home. He's given enough at his full day childcare, and he's been coping very well with weekly spelling and 听写, so I do not see the need to over prepare him. He gets to choose whatever activity he wants to be involved, including watching TV with his little brother most of the time.

Now you might want to ask, then why do I need to teach Rynus anything now?

I've mentioned many times that I am not a fan of enrichment lessons or tuition. We are just trying our best to learn together with our kids (they learn knowledge, we learn their learning patterns). When we see that they are on the right track to achieve a milestone, we help to push them and guide them to reach the finishing line. By doing this, hopefully they are well prepared with the right learning attitude and learning skills, and have the ability to cope well with school curriculum without the need to go for extra lessons. Renzo is a great example and the efforts we put in during his pre-school years, get well paid off when he entered K1 because he sees learning rather fun, and never once struggled with homework or weekly spelling tests. I wish Rynus can enjoy the same learning process just as his korkor so setting the foundation right is always important! And looking back at Renzo's growth, and how we brought up Rynus, I realized what we have adopted, is indeed the Montessori method which I loved and believed since Renzo was a baby. The concept suggests parents to act as observers who are always there to guide, and keep kids' enthusiasm alive without interfering with their efforts to teach themselves. Although we didn't send Rynus to a Montessori school (Renzo attended about 4 or 5 lessons when he was young). We got the idea about how it works for young kids, and decided to pretty much follow that method when it comes to early education.

Of course every kid learns at different pace, some of them might not show great interest to anything, others might be more inquisitive and are willing to learn and know everything around them. Just like both of our boys were exposed to Leapfrog at very young age, and they enjoyed and learned almost all the basic stuff from there, but the same set of materials don't really work for all kids, some of the kids couldn't even sit still to finish watching a 30 minutes episode. There's definitely no right or wrong in terms of the methods, or materials we use to coach our kids, just that since I noticed that Rynus is ready, after he went through the phases of learning alphabets -> learning phonics sounds -> tracing letters -> writing letters independently -> "spelling" words with phonics apps, I know it's time to prepare him for the next phase - reading.

Kids being kids, they absorbs fast at this age but at the same time, they might not have full self awareness to understand what they can really achieve. And I often hear mummies complaining their kids only like to play, whose kid doesn't?! But we must understand,  kids learn through play too. So we give the boys all the freedom they need at home, with proper guidance and control of course (yes that;s Montessori method). I don't nag at Renzo for playing his toys as long as he has finished all his homework. For Rynus, since he's still young, we let him decide what he likes to do, and we just participate and join in the fun together, even if that means to lie down on the floor and stare at Thomas training round and round on the track. Or to sit besides him, listen to him answering Dora's questions one by one. Rynus started using this "Phonics Rocks" app on my iphone about 2 months ago, for about 10 to 15 minutes a day. With my own experience coaching Renzo in the past, I felt that he's ready to spell some 3 letter words after he mastered the skill to figure out how to spell 3 letter words based on phonic sounds of each letter. So these few nights, we started guiding him with simple 3 letter words spelling.

Okay so how does this help with his reading skills exactly? 

I've mentioned this, in a post about Renzo's assessment at "I CAN READ" school when he was 3+..
"... Lastly he was tested on the first sound, last sound and middle sound of words like "elephant", "fish", "hen", etc, I heard that kids usually struggle with middle sounds, but I bet Renzo's ability to recognize middle sounds, must be the clincher for the teacher to decide which class he's qualified to attend at the end."

Back then Renzo couldn't write words (fine motor skill not as good as Rynus and no strength to grip pencil well), but he could pretty much read and spell well, and I strongly believe that has something to do with his ability to recognize first, middle and last sound of the words. With that experience, I have always been paying attention to Rynus in the same aspect. Rynus is very good with his first sound, but for the middle sound and last sound, he's still not able to break the words down that way.

For example, I asked him to write the word "CAT", it took him a little while, but just by hearing the word, "CAT", he managed to spell it out independently, that's a sign that he could tell the phonics sounds of each letter in this word, "C", "A", "T".

But another 3 letter word like RUN, he could only spell it as "R", then turned around and said to me, "Mummy, I am stuck!". So I had to make the phonics sound of "U" and "N", before he could write down the letters "U" and "N" which make the phonics sounds of /ŭ/ and /n/. 

At the same time, he did form some weird words like "CUG", "CIT" randomly, and wrote some words like "BIG", "BET" based on his own memory as those words appeared in the "Phonics Rocks" app. But I have no plan to correct him for now, with my experience on coaching Renzo, this is just another phase, I am sure Rynus will gradually  move on to the next level. I also mentioned this in Renzo's blog after his I CAN READ assessment:

So I strongly believe that Renzo reads mainly by sight words, his strong phonic foundation helps but it's not all about phonics, when they are not trained with a proper system on how to read, breaking down the words or relating them to something they know, is the way most people learn to read. For example, if they know how to read "rice", most likely they will figure out words like "price", "thrice"..

Back then we didn't quite know how to teach Renzo to read, but after we decided not to send him for I CAN READ enrichment lessons, we did started our own way of guiding him to focus on first and last sounds, then figuring out middle sound with simple 3 letter words. 

For Rynus, most of these 3 letter words he wrote, he needs some help to break down the word by sounding out the phonics sounds. But that's already a great start to build the foundation, what will happen next, is that slowly, he will be able to break down the words and sound of each phonic sounds of the first, last, as well as the middle letter, of course the middle letter usually is the toughest. And by doing that, he will then be able to blend the letters together and sound out the words, yes that's READING! Of course,  I don't mean to just "read" like this..

 

P/S: just for record purpose, Renzo was able to recognize/pronounce 3 letter words at 2 years 1 month old, read simple sentence like "The cat has a hat" independently at 2 years 5 months old, spell out 3 letter words at 2 years 8 months old. Of course when comes to writing he was slower than Rynus, I am hoping that baby Rynus could start reading in another 1 year time!

learning to write his own name

About 2 years ago when Renzo was 3.5 years old, I wrote a post about "learning to write his own name" on his blog, sharing our excitement when Renzo started to write his name in English. We totally didn't plan about when should we teach Rynus to write, well if ever we have plans, I guess I would use Renzo as the best benchmark and start to teach Rynus when he's 3.5 years old. But to our biggest surprise, after Rynus finished writing 1 to 20 & 100, A - Z independently before bedtime this evening, I tried to encourage him to write his own name, since he knows how to write all his letters though he still needs to work on his handwriting. And he managed to do it in less than 20 minutes!!

I first wrote "Rynus" on a piece of paper and asked him to read, he recognized that's his name right away. Actually for the past few weeks, he has been sharing with us about his classmates' names by repeating often: "A is for Adele, K is for Kyler, Z is for Zander, G is for Gabriel, J is for Jovina, etc, etc..". So maybe that's why it wasn't hard for him to figure out that R-Y-N-U-S is Rynus, his name!

I then asked him to try and write the word Rynus. He continued writing for at least 10 to 15 minutes and refused to let me teach or help him. He kept saying, "no mummy, I can do it!" when I was trying to guide him by spelling the letters out. On the 3rd or 4th try, I was very certain that he could already remember how to spell his name.

In no time he could write his name nicely and he was as proud as punch when we praised him in joy.

I am not sure if he could still remember how to spell/write his name tomorrow. But I am very pleased to realize that he is willing to learn and he's extremely confident and independent. He couldn't even grip his pencil properly but he puts in great efforts to make sure he applies enough pressure to make his lines smoother. Well done and way to go  my little boy!

first overseas trip with Rynus

For the past 3 years, the idea of bringing Rynus with us for vacation has been falling under the radar for one simple reason, it's already a challenge bringing him out of the house, let alone going overseas!!

Yes this little boy is such an angel to us at home but the moment we bring him out, he's full of piss and vinegar (most of the time).. There's no way he could sit still with us to enjoy a peaceful meal whenever we are outside. So how would we be able to manage him while bringing him to a foreign country? Thinking about the flight journey alone, is enough to give me goosebumps. Even Renzo who used to be pretty well behaved, insisted me to "OPEN THE WINDOW" in the airplane when he's around Rynus's age. I couldn't imagine what kind of battle I need to fight with Rynus so the farthest place he's been to so far, is Legoland in Malaysia as it's only about 1 hour drive away.

HongKong is a place my in laws have been wanting to visit since long ago, and we agreed (or I agreed) to bring them there but interestingly, each time we started planning about the trip in the past, I ended up expecting (LOL).. Finally we settled the itinerary and decided to bring the kids to Disneyland in HongKong this April, and of course, having my in laws tagging along at the same time so, not just that I could keep to my promise, they also could enjoy some fun bonding time with their grandsons all day long in a foreign land. And a 3 hours+ journey isn't too bad assuming, I  could distract Rynus successfully, with new stuff in the plane for the 1st hour, junk food for the 2nd hour and, tablet for the 3rd hour. Yes forget about all the house rules of no junk food no screen time, hey we are on a holiday!!

The trip turned out to be way better than expected, in the sense that it left a much deeper impact on little Rynus in many ways.

#1: He's enjoyed so much..
Yes what's more exciting than planning a trip and making the kids really happy?! Rynus asked to go to the hotel lobby every morning, to get a sweet from the friendly front-line staff, not forgetting an extra one for his Renzo korkor. He takes the lift to level 11 when he wants to get a dip in the pool or run about in their gigantic playground, or to level 15 and proudly announce to other guests in the lift, "I just pressed level 15" which is the level we stay at. Even till now, after we were back for weeks, he still occasionally exclaims, "I want to go to level 15!", or "I want to take aeroplane, yellow aeroplane! (We traveled by Scoot so that's why the 'yellow')", or, "I want to go to Disneyland!!". It's a very clear sign that he misses his trip to HongKong, though I doubt how much he could remember a year from now.

 

#2: He's learned so much..
There's always so much to see, so much to try when you are on vacation in a foreign land. Rynus didn't quite like the food in HongKong. There's nothing new there since he's not been eating well even back at home. But he loved the MTR train, the traditional tram (叮叮车), the Crystal Cabin Cable Car at Ngong Ping 360, and of course not to forget those amazing rides at Disneyland. Somehow all these "new" things triggered him to speak up more, in full sentences. Everyone around us noticed his change after the trip when he started communicating more, and showing less sign of shyness in front of acquaintance. And for his first experience taking a plane, it's so fun to see him learning to play with seat belt, front table, light etc for a good first 30 minutes of the flight.

 

 

 

#3: He's grown so much..
When we first hit to the airport during midnight, he made a big scene, partly because he was exhausted of course as it's way passed his usual sleep time of 9pm, and I had to punish him by bringing him to "naughty corner" and let him face the wall for a short "time out" period. The method didn't quite work out at home in the past as he seemed to have no fear about it at all. But when we travel, it worked like miracle. I explained to him that I would have to use this method if he misbehaves. And here are the 4 times I used "time out" on him. It's very obvious that the method worked better and better day after day. He clearly understands the consequences when I mention the word "naughty corner" and disciplining him has became so much easier nowadays.

1st time: for forcing grandpa to get on the escalator that goes only one way down when they need to go up

 

2nd time: for playing hide and seek with everyone at the mountain top while visiting big Buddha 

3rd time: for running about at the train station when Mummy was alone to take care of the two

 

4th time: for running away while waiting for Mummy to settle payment at cashier in shopping mall 

So the next question is, "Should we bring Rynus for vacation again?!", or better still, "Where should we bring him to for our next vacation?!"

introducing digital learning to Rynus for the first time

Remember the famous set of Leapfrog "Tag reader" Books? Being a huge Leapfrog fan family, I couldn't believe we didn't invest on a "Tag reader" pen, but I did borrowed this set of books from my sister when Renzo was 3. And "Casey cat has a hat" is probably the first book Renzo managed to read independently when he was 3+.

So, in less than 2 months time, Rynus is turning 3. Of course I would not miss my chance to put my precious little one to a test, yes, a reading test, just to see how he fares in terms of reading. Again don't get me wrong, I am not interested to compare Rynus with other kids, not even his own brother, it's just a reality check to help me understand him better and see what I can do to help him learn how to read on his own.

He could repeat after me with no problem, but when I pointed at simple rhyming words like "cat", "hat". "bat", etc, he couldn't recognize any of them though he has learned the concept of such rhyming words from Leapfrog "Word Caper" DVD. I am extremely patient with kids and I am extremely good with my phonics (I am not boasting but I learned my phonics well since young and my skill get reinforced after I had Renzo, LOL) . So I am very certain Rynus' "inability to read simple words", has nothing to do with my "high tolerance level", nor "strong knowledge in phonics and blending words". It's pretty obvious that my conventional way of teaching him to read by breaking down the words into syllables and sound them out, is just not working for Rynus! All this while we thought that's the way we taught Renzo to read when he was young, but, we could be wrong.

It took me less than 3 minutes to decide on the next course of action. I went straight to download a simple spelling app onto my android phone, leaving Daddy Chan in shock because he knows that I am not in favor of letting kids hold on to mobile devices. I totally couldn't stand kids with their eyes glued onto digital screens at dining tables so although Rynus is hard to pacify when he's outside, I've never resorted to iphone/ipad. Renzo used to spend a lot of time on ipad educational apps when he was 1.5 - 3 years old, and I had to remove ipad from his daily routine when he started to get hooked onto ipad games after he turned 4. So for Rynus, from day one, I made it very clear that he's only allowed to watch educational DVDs on TV, and that's it.

But this time, I realized my own expectation of getting Rynus to read based on a good book for young readers, doesn't seem to be too realistic and feasible. You might think I am asking for too much from a 3 years old. But in all honesty, I know my kids well and Rynus has mastered his 26 letters and their phonic sounds for at least a year, with my experience in coaching Renzo, I am very optimistic that by now, Rynus should be able to read, well at least simple words like "cat", "hat" and "bat" should not be too challenging for him after a few rounds of practicing. Unfortunately, it didn't quite work out that way and that made me think again, about how Renzo learned to read when he was at this age?!!

The answer is, maybe, just maybe, spelling is the foundation that helps kids to read independently. That's just my thought because through spelling, they get to break down words to first, middle, and last sound (for basic 3 letter words), and blend them together to spell it out, which in essence, helps them to read those words eventually. And the fact is, Renzo has spent at least 6 - 10 months purely on spelling 3 letter words. Here's a video of him doing it on ipad when he was only 1 year 10 months old.

So, for the very first time, Rynus got to experiment a mobile apps. It didn't take him long to figure out how to use a phone though he was struggling a bit with the touch screen at times. He has not really grasped the concept of middle sound and last sound, I can tell he's doing very well with his first sound. I mentioned in Renzo's blog before, most kids learn the concept of first and last sound before they could figure out the middle sound. For now, I only allow him to play with this app for 10 minutes a day, if, and only if he asks for it. Here's a video of him doing his spelling and victory balloon popping!

I have to admit that maybe in this modern era, it's just inevitable to expose kids to modern technologies, and it's even possible that many kids could only absorb well through such kind of digital interface and digital learning. Rynus was bouncing off the walls when he spelt his words out and got rewarded with a balloon. That's something he doesn't get through holding on and reading from a physical book. But of course we are still putting in efforts to read to, and read with him. Over the past decade, the use of technology in children’s education has exploded, and there are now literally thousands of tablet and smartphone apps created to help kids learn in more interactive and entertaining ways. The debate about using apps for educational purposes is still ongoing, but despite any supposed drawbacks for children, I do see the benefits in digital learning so for now, we are just going to introduce educational apps gradually to Rynus' learning routine, of course with proper control..